In listening to the debate on Thursday over the internet from the House of Commons as to the disorders over the previous five days, this facial recognition issue was addressed as the issue of “face covering,” and whether “policing by consent,” which is the British way, would tolerate legislation/rules that forbid face coverings at certain times (a face-covering curfew or such) or at certain places.  Another idea was that the police could skip the kind of permission gathering that would be like American police getting a signed judicial permission to search a house.  Or maybe more like permission to pat-frisk.  If somebody down the road has a mask, can the police yell out, un-mask yourself or I’ll detain you?   (Will LLBean start offering cellophane balaclavas for people traveling to England in winter?)
    It seems in the last great disruption the ones who found themselves “in the dock” were the police, for having deployed too many “rounds” of the baton.  And it was noted in the debate that though hosing with purple-dye water has advantages in use on crowds, the recent disorders have not for the most part involved crowds.  They did not speak of what happens when the perpetrators are wearing video cameras on their caps to record police behavior.
   But the sense of un-ease about safety was rampant.  A culture of violence was cited.  Parents who “don’t know where their children are.” Cameron called the issue “rights without responsibility,” and the human rights act in the UK has apparently slowed the batons of the police and the rendered parents impotent in disciplining their children, but very few spoke of actually giving responsibility to the young, just “keeping them busy,” especially during the summer when jobs are scarce.  Gangs, they say, and flash-mobilized opportunists, with trains, and buses, and cars brought marauders place to place, not jalopies but “souped-up” vehicles, and the things stolen were the highest-end handbags, the costliest jewels, in general.  “How do you deal with a neighbor who suddenly has come into ownership of three new TV’s” one MP asked.